Journey Through Twin Peaks: the complete presentation

[LostInTheMovies]

I think it's ok to be disrespectful of a critique. At any rate, I found kmk's phrasing, if blunt and a tad passive-aggressive (maybe in light of some of his other comments), to be by-and-large respectful - certainly compared to other complaints I've gotten.

However, what does strike me as more disrespectful is the caricaturing of my viewpoint. To wit:

- " Surely one would never turn in a paper like this to their professor:
I will not intellectualize this beautiful and highly intuitive work of art cause that demystifies and destroys the work art.
The end.
... and hope to get a passing grade. Lol. "

- "Not to put too fine a point on it. This seems to be the routine....
-- Talking about it dilutes the experience, but I'm gonna talk about it. Listen to me.
-- hi, can I talk about it.
-- talking about it dilutes the experience.
-- oh sorry!
See how that's problematic?"

- "to regulate the flow of ideas with that kind of philosophy feels self serving to me."

- and most recently, "You know if i really wanted to be disrespectful I would have said that it's the kind of analysis that dilutes and ruins the experience for others." (i.e. that's what I've been saying about his analysis, supposedly)

As responses to my videos, these are fairly absurd since the series is very heavy on analysis, including me talking about the experience (implying that a 4-hour narrated analysis is similar to handing in a two-line paper refusing to engage with the work is especially silly).

And as responses to my comments in this thread, these veer from misguided to deliberately obtuse the longer they go on, because I've repeatedly clarified my statements and emphasized that I am not opposed to in-depth analysis nor that I refuse to engage and/or automatically dismiss criticism made in a mode I disagree with.

The defensive tone is the most irritating part of this discussion, kmk, as you have never offered any particular analysis which I dismissed or even disagreed with - indeed, you haven't offered any particular analysis at all. I made some general statements which might or might not apply to your critiques, or mode of critique, but we won't know until you actually provide an example. And it all comes off as particularly hypocritical when the entire conversation began by me providing an analysis which you did disagree with (although not very specifically), in a mode that you have more or less dismissed.

That's a pretty uneven playing field.

[Dalai Cooper]

obtuse is about right but I wouldn't assume deliberate tbh

[N. Needleman]

I'm not going to disagree or agree with any of this - but I don't think it's worth having a conversation about something other than Lost's essay in the thread about Lost's essay.

[Dalai Cooper]

btw:

Robert Engels: "Judy - the name is [from] my sister-in-law. I think that is where it came from. The Thing behind Judy has to do with where David Bowie came from..."

[LostInTheMovies]

I recently did an interview with the folks at the Twin Peaks Unwrapped podcast, discussing the Journey Through Twin Peaks videos as well as the first season of the show: http://twinpeaksunwrapped.com/e/twin-pe ... oel-bocko/

[LostInTheMovies]

Max Winter at Indiewire's PressPlay video blog has shared "7 Facts About Fire Walk With Me" under the title "7 Reasons Why David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is an Underrated Masterpiece" with a nice little write-up about forgotten follow-ups to famous works: http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/wa ... e-20150925

(And it looks like One Perfect Shot has also decided to share the video, under the title "7 Reasons Not to Hate 'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me'" with a slightly longer article describing many fans' frustrations with the film for not resolving the series cliffhanger: http://oneperfectshotdb.com/news/watch- ... k-with-me/)

[dud]

watched this entire series over the past couple days, incredible work! very insightful and brilliantly executed. enjoyed it a lot. the two things that were totally new to me and were very interesting were the whole thing with the angel/ring/ronette/traincar/mike in fwwm, and the idea that the first half hour of fwwm was cooper's dream, cool stuff

it also got me thinking a lot about TPS3...this video series really re-emphasized for me how twin peaks already feels like a complete work, laura's story was the heart of twin peaks (both for lynch and for me personally) and fwwm wrapped up her story (and therefore twin peaks) perfectly, her story ended with spiritual triumph and was the perfect note to end the whole body of work on

which leaves me thinking: what big fish could lynch & frost have possibly caught that made them revisit twin peaks??? what more needs to be told? is this going to wrap up cooper's story? that's the only thing i could imagine besides something entirely new (and i'm leaning towards something entirely new)

and i'm not one of those people who thinks they shouldn't be making a third season. on the contrary, i'm even more intrigued now after watching these videos because it really draws everything together and show twin peaks as a whole, complete body of work. so for them to make more episodes is baffling in the most exciting way! i'd love to hear your predictions for the third season, lostinthemovies. i'd also like to hear your thoughts on judy/phillip jefferies (the only thing i thought was missing from the videos)

[LostInTheMovies]

Thanks! The timing of the videos was interesting because the first batch came out the day before Lynch's and Frost's tweets dropping the "gum you like" hint. So when I conceived the series and executed the first round, it was very much in the mindset that "this is all the Twin Peaks we get, now let's gather around and figure out what it adds up to." With parts 2-4 I knew that wasn't the case anymore yet this initial approach still colored the rest of the series and I still believed that the original series and film (which we can now call "the first Twin Peaks cycle" I guess) formed a complete story on their own.

So what do Lynch/Frost have in mind - what's left I tell? While I am sure there will be many elements in play I do think the central feature has to be Cooper's story. As always I am sure Laura will play some role in the story that we can't foresee and maybe not simply as a guiding figure. I think that last Lynch quote is really telling: "Do you like to take the names off things?" "Absolutely." Which also makes an interesting pair with Laura's statement in Between Two Worlds: "I meet many people with no names." I think Lynch will strive to make us rethink we think we know (much as FWWM did for the series) and I guess my only worry is I hope it doesn't "cancel out" what the original series accomplished. I don't think it will because, despite occasional contradictions (like the stuff with Mike), Lynch usually likes to build on what exists rather than simply destroy it.

By the way, if you want to read more about the Cooper's Dream theory, check out my interview with John Thorne from Wrapped in Plastic: http://thedancingimage.blogspot.com/201 ... -with.html.

Regarding Judy (& to a large extent Jeffries) I left it out for 4 reasons: I don't have any conclusive theories on it (likewise with the Tremond whom I don't talk about much); I think it's sort of appropriate to leave it a mystery which seems to at least partly have been Lynch's intention; I think if there are any strong conclusions to draw, they will primarily be found in the upcoming season; and, well, just to be a bit cheeky ("we're not gonna talk about Judy") .

That said, I really like John Thorne's idea about Judy being ret-conned into something to do with Laura: http://abovethestore.blogspot.com/2009/ ... -judy.html. We also got a thread going on it here a whole back where I left some thoughts, though I'm not sure how much I stand by them today haha. http://www.dugpa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2551

[dud]

cool stuff, thanks for the links!

[Coopedup]

I just finished your series now, posted my appreciation on your blog page, discovered this forum and registered. Thanks again for the time and effort you put into this series. It was remarkable work and deserves to be released as a special feature. Well done!

[LostInTheMovies]

Thanks & glad I brought you here!

[OK,Bob]

When you ran the two Heidi scenes concurrently when you were covering the finale, did you notice that every word is doubled? Obviously most of it is word-for-word if you compare the Pilot and Ep 29... but the lone difference - the word "again" appearing in Ep 29 - is doubled by having both Bobby & Shelly say it. A minor thing, but worth appreciating... Then I wonder how conscious this is.

[LostInTheMovies]

Yeah that's where he really tips his hand that this is a super-conscious retread! It's also fun noticing the subtle differences in the locations, between set and actual restaurant.

[OK,Bob]

In 25+ years and dozens of re-watches, I'd never quite appreciated the specific doubling of "again" until this latest rewatch of Journey Through.

Speaking of doubling and mirror images, note that in the Pilot one half of Laura's necklace is found atop a mound of dirt, while the other ends up in a mirrored state: buried in the dirt.




"Life is a donut!"

[dreamshake]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acchlr8lA5k[/youtube]

Lostinthemovies is back with Journey Through Twin Peaks! So far he's posted videos covering the time between FWWM and the Return.